Worcester's Beechwood Hotel is a labor of love

Sunday

Mar 30, 2014 at 6:00 AM

By Aaron Nicodemus

The Beechwood Hotel has hosted its share of stars.

Academy Award-winning actress Jennifer Lawrence stayed at the Beechwood Hotel last year, when she was filming "American Hustle" in Worcester; so did Desmond Tutu, the South African peace activist, when he gave a speech in 2011 to a crowd at St. John's High School.

The 73-room boutique hotel at 363 Plantation St. in Worcester is a popular spot for functions in the business community. Its occupancy rate is 70 percent, considered healthy in the hotel industry.

Take a tour of the Beechwood with its owner, Dr. Charles Birbara, and his wife, Janet, and you can't help being impressed by his collection of architectural treasures that he and Janet have placed throughout the facility.

The beautiful, curved stained glass window in the hotel's restaurant, Ceres Bistro, came from a Boston home that was being torn down. The beautiful walnut fireplace in the lobby was salvaged from another private home.

Dr. Birbara can tell you the story behind every single piece of artwork on the walls of the place — because he found them, bought them and ordered where they should be placed. Don't get him started about the former City Hospital chapel he took apart, piece by piece, and had lovingly restored in the building's conference hall — at an exorbitant cost that he chooses to forget.

"It's a labor of love, this place," he said to me. "Every dime is plowed back into the business."

As we stopped to admire one of the dozens of antique posters that decorate the Beechwood, I joked with Charlie that he built the Beechwood as a kind of museum for his architectural finds. He smiled at me when I said it, not sure if I was joking or not. When I assured him that I was, indeed, joking, he laughed with me.

Charlie Birbara might be the only rheumatologist/boutique hotel owner in the country. He has a thriving medical practice that he works in during the day, then comes to the Beechwood to taste the latest offerings from the chef at Ceres, or to fuss over some minute detail of the business.

The Beechwood, which opened in 1989, is the only full-service hotel in Worcester. Its rooms range in price from $139 per night on some weekdays and Sundays, to as much as $600 per night for the presidential suite.

While the rooms have recently been renovated, and each room now has its own iPad, the hotel has a classy elegance that some travelers might consider old-fashioned. It is certainly a unique place.

The hotel is going through some changes.

In November, after 18 years in charge, longtime General Manager Mark Waxler left the Beechwood. Mr. Waxler, who was married in June, founded a private consulting group called the Waxler Hospitality Group. The company consults with hotels and restaurants, and also offers concierge/event planning services. Mr. Waxler, a Worcester resident, said he will still be part of the Worcester business community.

"I'm proud of what the Beechwood has become," Mr. Waxler told me last week. "I decided it was time to go on my own."

Replacing him is Mario A. Cuevas, a native of Mexico and naturalized U.S. citizen who grew up in Brownsville, Texas. He was most recently the general manager of the Park Plaza Hotel & Towers in Boston, and has been in the hotel business for more than 25 years. Since taking over at the Beechwood in November, he has moved his family to West Boylston.

Interesting fact about Mr. Cuevas: His father, Carlos, worked for 27 years as a warehouse supervisor at Norton Co.'s facility in Brownsville. Now Mr. Cuevas finds himself in Worcester, where Norton Co. was headquartered for many years before being bought by Saint-Gobain.

"It's funny how small the world is sometimes," he said.

The Beechwood recently signed up for the World Hotels reservation system, connecting it to other independent, four-star hotels around the world. The only other Massachusetts property in World Hotels is the Eliot Hotel in Boston.

But the Beechwood is still hampered by the fact that it does not belong to a national chain, and depends more on word-of-mouth and repeat customers than chain hotels do. With Worcester set to have hotels built at Gateway Park and CitySquare in the next two years, the Beechwood will have even more competition.

There are plans in the works to expand the Beechwood, but they are a year away. The plan is to build the addition off Ceres Bistro, and have 25 to 40 new rooms, including a grander, swankier presidential suite. There would also be an indoor pool and a spa.

Charlie told me that he has already started filling a storage container with architectural knickknacks for the hotel's addition — like the walnut wall paneling that once graced the executive suite at General Motors in downtown Manhattan.